Cream the butter and sugar, add the egg and sour cream then stir in the lemon juice and zest.

Stir in the flour and baking powder and knead the mixture adding more flour if required to make a firm, roll-able dough.

Chill for ½ an hour then roll out and cut into stars using a variety of star cutters. I used the star template (click to download) from our chocolate Christmas tree recipe and cut the stars individually with a knife. For the smaller ones I used star cutters. Cut plenty of extra stars in the smallest size. You will place these between the cookie layers to give the tree height.

Next time I would simply buy a pack of various size star cutters and do it that way. It then becomes a quick easy project. The dough makes enough for 3 trees.

Bake at around 180° for 10 – 12 minutes. Smaller stars will cook more quickly.

While the cookies are baking make a bowl of glace icing – how much will depend on how many stars you use – I used about 1 ½ cups of icing sugar and enough lemon juice with a drop or two of water to give a good spreadable coating.

Spread each star with the prepared icing and sprinkle on a few silver balls. Cake decorating shops sell them in a variety of sizes so I used tiny ones like stardust as well as regular ones.

When the icing is beginning to firm use a bread and butter knife to scrape the edges of each star, scraping off the drips and over- runs. The over all effect of the trees is better if the edges are clean.

To assemble your trees select the largest size stars to form the bases of your 3 trees. Place a blob of icing in the middle of each one and put one of your smallest stars on the blob. Add another blob of icing and affix the next biggest star, then another blob of icing and a small star as a spacer. Continue in this manner until you have used all your stars. You should have 3 iced Christmas trees.

Dust with icing sugar if you like and wrap in cellophane to keep fresh.